We’ve moved! Here’s what it means for our finances, and what we’ve learned from downsizing so far.

I’m sitting at our new kitchen table here in dead silence, other than wild animals roaming around, haha… Here’s what we came home to the other day:

Forgot how beautiful it was here! Saw some bunnies outside this morning grazing too which scared my boys into thinking we’d only have dirt left when they were done eating ;) A reminder of what we could do in that case quickly changed their tunes though:

STICK GARDEN!!! Haha… Free entertainment at its best!

But yeah – been here for about two weeks now, and so far so good. Really excited to get the new phase of our lives going and feel like it was def. a good call. The wife’s back to her career for the first time in 6 years (she was getting a PHD), and the kids are down the street playing legos at a home daycare. I miss them already, but hey – life’s all about changes, eh?

I’d also be lying if I said I miss the pressure of supporting my entire family on one blog income too :) We’ve weathered some big storms over the years – and still not out from all of them – but our money continues to grow so hopefully this latest move will only catapult it further.

Here’s a snapshot of how this affects our finances now:

Rent: +$500/mocompared to VA

Car:+$340/m0 as we needed to get a new (to us) car to replace dear ol’ Frankencaddy now that I’m in charge of the boys on a daily basis (miss you, buddy!!)

Daycare:+$1,600/mo for two boys full-time. This was the cheapest by far, if you can believe it, as all other options (centers, camps, etc) ranged from $2,000 to $2,800/month (!!!). And they love their new caretaker so far and have friends again to play with (their own age – hah).

Cost of living:+$200/mo? Not sure how to calculate this, but it’ll def. be more.

Retirement investments: +$400/mo?Looking forward to taking advantage of all those gov’t accounts/matches! Good to have more $$$ under the wife’s name too.

Internet savings: +$35/mo – We were able to score a better monthly contract at our new place!

Utility savings: +$50/mo? – Our landlord says we should be saving a decent amount with all the energy savings upgrades to the house, but time will tell…

Other benefits: Extra life insurance, flex spending I believe, and some others we’re still sorting through

So it won’t be a windfall of extra money coming in (I’m guessing $500-$1,000 extra/month?), but every bit helps, and more importantly, the Mrs. is getting her career going again. And since it’s with the gov’t, it’s safe to say it’s more stable than online income. Though according to the interwebs, the world as we know it will crash whether Trump or Clinton wins, so maybe none of this will matter in the end? ;)

Some other things of note throughout this process…

There’s a big difference between maintaining a rental vs a house you own. In the three years we rented our house in Va, we probably spent about $500 total on maintenance. And this includes a $250 deduction in our rent deposit for scruffing up parts of their hardwood floors in my office – oops. Want to take a guess how much it cost the owners of the home in comparison? Over $15,000!!!Not only did a handful of items break down and needed fixing/replacing, but in the last year there the house started leaking and needed the entire roof to be replaced – yikes.

Again this why I love renting so much!!! Even though it’s “throwing money down the drain!” Now to be fair, I was helping them pay down their mortgage every month so it wasn’t like they exactly lost $15,000, but by and large this is the part most people forget about in their calculations of renting vs owning – the maintenance. And that doesn’t even account for the mental side of things either. Nothing wrong with whichever route you go, just please know how it affects your overall lifestyle! It’s okay to rent if that suits you the best!

We’ll never hire “per hour” movers again. For the first time in our lives we hired some burly men to come and load up a moving van with all the boxes we packed ourselves, and what was supposed to be a 6 hour deal at $700turned into a 12 hour one at $1,300. I’ve never seen grown men move so slowly, and considering I was in there moving stuff alongside of them, you’d think it would have sped up the process pretty well. But nope. They took their sweet time, and then magically “got stuck in traffic” one hour more than it took us, even though we were 5 minutes behind them. So yay to getting it all done and having nothing broken at least, but a big boooooo for how it all came together. Next time – flat fee only and/or never allowing my friends to ever vacation again :) (I swear we weren’t like those people Jeffro dealt with during his moving nightmare!! We really did have mostly light stuff!)

Tote containers are AWESOME for moves. We picked up this trick from another friend during the last move, but pretty much we just pick up dozens of decently-sized tupperware-like bins from Target or Walmart at like $3.00 a pop, and then we just start stashing everything we can in them. Especially books. This makes both packing, and carrying/unloading, them much easier and faster. They also stack up well together making things look much more organized than they are :) However….

For being an aspiring minimalist, I still have a bunch of crap to get rid of. We probably donated over 20 boxes of stuff before the move (which alone shocked me!), but as we started loading up the truck I realized half of the stuff in our basement still hadn’t been gone through. So I set all these aside in our newer basement, and came out to be about 18 tupperwares full of stuff from previous moves, along with numerous bins labeled “memories” that we haven’t gone through in forever. So our goal is to go through one box a week until we’re all through four and a half months later. Should be do-able?

Decluttering your key chain is the best!! I don’t know why I never pay attention to it, but I literally had 9 random keys on it that I had no idea where they go to anymore. I kept saying to myself, “well maybe one day you’ll find out and need them?” but then I slapped myself and took them all off making my keychain look incredibly wimpy with only three keys left :) But what a feeling!!! When was the last time you sorted yours?

Lastly, downsizing is cozy :) We lost 600 sq feet in our move (1,700 down to 1,100), but we gained so much. We all feel closer as a family so far, and not only physically, haha, and since most things are all on one level now we get to see each other more. It’s also been a ton easier to clean and even decorate/sort things. We’ve had to get rid of some stuff already that didn’t fit, but a few easy replacements later did the trick and by and large we’ve settled in quite nicely. This bodes well for future dreams of moving into an RV/houseboat/hotel!! :)

Some pics of our eating nook and kids basement playroom…

(They love the new home too! Especially having a place all to themselves to make messes in :))

We’ll see how long we live here! Any new addition of kids or career changes could have us running back to VA in no time, haha… Which is our ultimate goal in the end.

Until then, we do our best to enjoy the change and have some family adventures together, and we always remember that life is never permanent even though it sometimes feels like it is. You never know what’s lurking around the corner – good or bad!

And hopefully you’re in the middle of some good changes yourself :)

*****PS: That Amazon Echo I got as a gift the other day? Killer!! Finally got it up and running to drown out the silence here, and it’s awesome to be able to play music so easily by just asking Alexa to do it. Same with checking the weather, flash news briefings, and now playing farts and kitten sounds – courtesy of my 4 y/o. We did have to lock the Amazon ordering as that little booger somehow managed to order a toy airplane in the 5 seconds I left him alone (!!!!), but it was quickly terminated by telling it to cancel it, and now I officially know he’s smarter than I give him credit for ;) Pretty wild how advanced technology is getting, though… Crazy to think what the future holds!

We’ve moved! Here’s what it means for our finances, and what we’ve learned from downsizing so far. was last modified: July 29th, 2016 by J. Money

I don’t think my kid’s room has been that neat since she could walk. Enjoy the animals…it’s fun to watch the deer and bunnies but they eat everything. The herds that wander through our yard have destroyed anything we try to plant, even trees.

Super – congratulations on the move!! :) Ive been on a kick of moving every 2-3 years since I was 17 so I know how exhausting it can be. Those pay by the hour dudes are a total scam!! I cant remember which podcast I was listening to recently but they were talking about being paid for the job you needed done – not for the time it takes you to do it. Like in the olden days – I need a wagon built so I will pay you for the job once completed. They wouldn’t have paid by the hour for a job they didn’t know if the guy could finish or not. I got screwed with a paint by the hour job a few years back and will def never do that again! :)

I am currently an owner but have started to look at the finer side of renting. My boyfriend lives in a rental with his boys and he is pretty insistent he will never own again. Him having a full time job and carting around 2 kids leaves little time for home maintenance. I, on the other hand, LOVE to do home improvements! I think buying something to fix then renting it out might be my next step…who knows, I change my mind daily!

I think this marks move #27 or around there for me :) Moved a lot with military growing up, and then couldn’t supress the urge to keep moving even out on my own – hah. Buying my old house actually was the only way I was able to be stuck still – and it was horrible! Though I am getting better at it now that we have kids and they come before shiny new home syndrome haha…

I’d imagine you’ll be staying put more too now owning, yeah? Hard to go in and out of them every 2-3 years unless you are going the flipping game.

October will mark 2 years in this place…I already have the itch to move! I am currently on the waiting list (#4) to have my place be a rental. Once I can rent it I am sooooo out of here! Though I love my building and my unit, my dog (Bubba) is getting up there in age and can’t (or won’t) do the 3 flights of stairs anymore. She’s a bit of a diva and at 67 lbs I can’t carry her up!

I’m looking for a second floor unit in the same building or I may venture out to the burbs in favor of space and PARKING!! It’s amazing how much more free I feel when I know I have a dedicated place to park when I come home from work or the grocery. If I could ditch the car all together it would be amazing but with Bubba and my job that won’t be happening anytime soon. I think I will focus on a small fixer upper (aka dirty old home syndrome – haha) with intent to live in it while fixing then rent it out after. Who knows where the wind will blow me next!?! Flight attendants have a tendency to be, well, flighty! :)

Oooh are you a flight attendant??? I used to be a ticket agent for Continental Airlines back in the day! Right after 9/11 actually – was crazy…. Loved all the free’ish travel and adventures, but man – the industry (at least in the NYC area) was so dirty… Everyone cheating on each other and living secret lives and just so chaotic everywhere… Helluva experience though :)

Haha – so scandalous!! I too was hired right after 9/11 and am proud to say that, despite my starting at the tender age of 23, I have managed to somehow avoid all of the shameful shenanigans and have yet to fall into the FA/Pllot stereotype. That being said, you’re right. It’s an interesting industry to be a part of and the travel benefits are insane!! The 9.6% company match ain’t so bad either. ;)

Congratulations on the move! Glad to see you all have settled in. :) I think the best part of downsizing was really getting rid of all the stuff we didn’t need. And you’re right. There’s still more to tackle. Just the other day, we donated a few bags of clothes that no longer fit.

Thanks for the tips about the things you learned about making the moving process easier. I can’t wait to move out west again to get closer to family but I dread the day that I actually have to endure the process. Glad it’s over for you.

Welcome to the “Free State” where nothing is free…. speaking of “Frankencaddy”, my Dear Mother just got ran into in a parking lot in her “vintage vehicle” and the gal that hit her offered to pay her out of pocket. The repair estimate is probably more than the car is worth….The challenge is….finding parts….

We discovered that tote trick a few years ago. It’s great during the move and we find uses for the totes all the time in everyday life. We got a great deal on some red and green totes right after Christmas. They cost something like $1.77 each at Lowe’s.

I downsized from my 1350 square foot apartment to a 980 sq ft last year and I’m still paying less per month after a lease renewal. I also saved thousands in the process which allowed me to attack debt and increase my emergency savings. Rent is rising fast here in Atlanta.

Childcare – it just kills your monthly finances. No way around it. This is why working parents need to demand more support in this country. Affordable childcare is not just about women – it is about families! When it comes to working families, we are all hexpected to just pretend we don’t have children. It is a cruel farce. (btw, few things are more unsettling than phantom keys.)

A coworker just moved and had the same problem, where it took the movers twice as long as expected. Makes me wonder just how often that happens. She was more upset about losing the time than the additional cost.

I own my 3 bedroom, 1000 sq ft townhouse outright but would definitely consider moving into an apartment once my cats have passed away. I could get by in a 500 sq ft apartment but it’s too hard to find a place that would take pets. The thought of little to no maintenance is really appealing to me, especially since I’d like to travel more.

Love that your son ordered a toy plane via Alexa! That gave me a good laugh :)

Woahhh just Googled Ellicott City and it looks so beautiful!!! and quaint! I’d heard the name over the years but never checked out before. We’re closer into the DC/495 range than Baltimore, but tea or beer where you are would be awesome :)

Dude, they’re great. Esp with kids! They love to slide around in them and get all cozy. As do we :) I got the idea years ago when I realized how much I prefer booths in diners vs regular tables, and now we’re onto our second nook. The first one was a cheap particle wood you can buy off Amazon for like $200 but it kept cracking all over, so this time around we found a nice sold wood version on Craigslist. Paid $400 but $50 of it was getting them to deliver from a ways a way :)

I also largely move in totes. It began in college and I still have the same ones. They stack when not in use. My winter clothes and paperwork are in them, which prevents them from getting water damage. I also have my most of my books and some clothes in crates I painted. When it is time to move, they just need to be tipped on their side and they are ready to go in the car. I use them modularly. I’ll probably paint some more before I buy a place, and then I won’t need to get a dresser.

Congrats on the move, and income upgrade! The new benefits are gonna be really nice – the govt insurance is the best we have ever had. And looks like someone found your hostas, those things are like a deer salad bar.

Def. looking forward to better insurance for 1/4 the price :) It was actually pretty funny – my wife thought her first week would be a cake walk since “no one does anything” at the gov’t and boy was she wrong! we’ll see how it changes as we move along here :)

For our last interstate move, we paid for loaders/unloaders on each side and drove the rental truck (U-Haul) and spent about $900 (including gas and tolls for truck rental), and that was for coming out of NYC so it was definitely cheaper than paying for professional movers the whole way. We were only a 2 bedroom place so a bigger truck would’ve been an extra $100 or so. But if you can get flat rate movers, I can see that working out better.

Also, in our own situation, a rental equivalent in size and location to the our current mortgage would be at least $500 more a month, so buying made more sense since we can put that extra $500/month towards our maintenance savings account (granted we got a deal on our $99k twin house in Philly burbs). But if you’re in an area where 3-4 bedroom homes are $300k+, it almost always makes more financial sense to rent, unless you know you’re moving into a “forever” home or available rents are significantly higher than a mortgage cost (which happens in small college towns–my co-worker’s daughter pays an arm and a leg in rent for her rental home in Ithaca, NY but buying a home is still reasonable).

Very smart about the the loaders/unloaders too. We were looking at that through U-Haul actually as they help get you them on both sides, but when we originally calculated it all we thought the difference was worth the convenience so decided to go “all in.” Especially since we still had to get our own cars up there as well as watch the kids (no helpers since everyone was out of town). Would have been perfect if all went to plan, but sadly it did not :(

Wow, good luck with your move. At this point I don’t think I could go smaller, even though it’s just my wife and I. You’re right on the expenses and costs part; can’t deny that. However, my goal is to pay my house off by the time my wife & I are ready to retire so I’ll only have to worry about property taxes once a year.

I am moving to a much smaller space (going from 550 sq feet to 250 sq feet) but a nicer/quieter/not car centric area.
I decided to implement a $20 rule. If I was unsure whether to get rid of something, and it cost less than $20 to replace, away it went. Sooo,

6 bags of trash (OMG I threw away computer cables!!)
7 boxes + a pair of 1988 speakers to charity
furniture I got out of the freecycle went back into the freecycle (craft caddy, chairs, desk, a rug)

I am going to use a storage service for 4 months just to hold stuff (bonus they come and pick it up). Since my place is so small, I am going bring the necessities first, set up shelving and other storage, then go to the storage place which is just down the street and get the stuff.

We just moved. I got a new job and had to move across country. We downsized from a 1500 square foot house to a 900 foot apartment. When we were moving we realized how much stuff we had accumulated in just a couple of years of buying a house. I’ve been putting things in the donation pile left and right. It really does feel better to to get rid of stuff. Living with less is better.
The place is smaller yet fits all the essentials. Haven’t figured out our budget quite yet. Between the move and all the eating out it has been a pit pricey.

Congrats on the new place! Yes, movers can go slowly when they have no $ motivation for hauling it, (or anyone doing any job!). If you had paid them for four hours work-they would have finished in four hours, ouch! LOL. Love the world map on the wall!

I second any requests for more info on how to get a fixed price move from a moving company! I have only ever used hourly movers, and I always feel violated when I pay them – especially when they are late.
Boxes marked “FRAGILE” (must be Italian)? They go at the bottom of the stack or in an unstable position. Sigh.

Awww, haha…. yeah some of them are the worst. We didn’t deal with any of that nonsense other than the slowness, but def. looking into flat rate next time (if there is a next time!) for sure. I don’t know how easy they are to come by but hopefully there’s at least a couple to choose from!

I envy your mentality toward change! Me dealing with a potential move is overwhelming just at the thought. Kudos!

I own my home but would much rather be a renter. I agree with you that there is no right or wrong answer to that. I just would prefer calling someone else to deal with a problem as opposed to me dealing with it (and paying for it).

Luckily we can change our positions anytime we want to :) There may be a time I own again in the future, but for now we’re good so we roll down that avenue… I’ll never say never again with this type of stuff cuz life is always changing!

I understand why you prefer renting to owning, but it can be a boon to own. I got a great deal on my house and have already paid It off. The hose is worth $100k more than I paid for it too. The amount of maintenance that would have to occur would have to be $15k a year to make it better to rent for me. I’m aiming to retire by 55, and being mortgage free really helps me do that.

And totally agree – housing can be AWESOME to own for sure. Especially if you do your due diligence and wait until the right one comes along/etc/etc… If I happen to find a steal one day and also in the mood to try it out again, I just might.

I think it’s important to know whether you’ll be living in the same spot for a while or not too. Just in the past 3 years we’ve lived in 3 different places which of course is NOT ideal to home ownership. So that’s also an important factor to consider for all others reading this right now.

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